Five teams will represent Romania at the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, the world's largest annual hackathon aimed at finding real solutions to problems on Earth and in space. The teams represent the five cities where the competition took place this year in Romania - offline in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca and online in Oradea, Timișoara, and Iași.

The five winning teams from Romania are Dvloper.io in Bucharest, R.A.G.E in Cluj-Napoca, Open 360 in Timișoara, Kilonova in Iași, and Soft Hoarders in Oradea. 

The winners were chosen from a total of 28 local teams. In terms of the number of participants, there were 189 competitors in Romania, placing the country sixth in Europe. Globally, there were over 50,000 participants in over 400 cities.

During the hackathon, participants use public data from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and its space agency partners. Programmers, scientists, designers, engineers, technology enthusiasts, and storytellers from all over the world may participate in the event.

Dvloper.io, the team that won the competition in Bucharest, proposed Demeter, a geo-agriculture application that adapts to the needs of the parcel. Team members are Răzvan Georgescu, Thushara, and Andrei Zvirid.

R.A.G.E, the winning team in Cluj-Napoca, created an emergency early warning system for fire-risk areas. Team members are Gabriel Oltean, Eusebiu Ștefan Coltanel, Răzvan Udrea, and Adrian Costea.

Open 360, the team that will represent Timișoara, has created a marketplace platform through which volunteers can follow their favorite NASA Open Science projects, receiving an email every week with the project's progress. The members of the Open 360 team are Alexandru-Florin Boboc, and Cătălin Andrei Bora.

Kilonova, the winning team in Iași - a team of high school students - developed Selenotone, a website that allows users to upload videos from space, with each image being then turned into sound. Members of the team are high school students Dragoș Lazăr, Octavian Găinaru, Andrei Pătrașcu, Maria Vasilache, Teodor Moscaliuc, and Rareș Neculau.

Last but not least, Soft Hoarders, the winning team from Oradea, created a water use education and awareness app called "The Water Cycle: Balancing Act." The team members are Bogdan Alexandru Văduva, Vlad Ciunel Vlad, and Alexia Bulubasa.

Since its launch in 2012, the NASA Space Apps Challenge has engaged over 220,000 people from over 185 countries and territories.

Space Apps is managed by the Earth Sciences Division, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

In Romania, the biggest hackathon in the world is organized by ROTSA and DiFine PR. The first edition of the NASA International Space Apps Challenge in Romania took place in 2016.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the organizers)